The present invention relates generally to accessories for recreational vehicles, both motorized and towed, and more particularly to cooking accessories that are removably mounted to the exterior of the recreational vehicle.
Recreational vehicles, including travel trailers, motor homes and the like, typically have facilities within them, such as stoves, for cooking food. The fuel for such stoves is often bottled fluid or gas, such as propane, which is stored in containers within the vehicle or stored on the exterior of the vehicle with fuel supply lines running to the stove location interior of the vehicle from the containers. Cooking on such stoves is in many ways similar to cooking on common residential gas stoves.
Persons using recreational vehicles have also often used barbeque grills for cooking food outside the vehicle when camping or picnicking. Cooking food on a barbeque grill outside of the vehicle has certain advantages over cooking on the inside stove from the standpoint of safety (less risk of fire spreading to the vehicle), cleanliness (less contamination of the vehicle interior with food odors), comfort (less heating of the vehicle interior in warm weather use) and food taste (easier to apply certain smoked or grilled flavors). On the other hand, a barbeque grill is typically harder to clean, especially where charcoal fuel has been used. Such grills are commonly portable, light weight and free standing and, therefore, require careful attention to the actions of persons or pets in its vicinity to avoid inadvertent contact which could tip it over or cause burn injuries. Further, such grills typically produce a significantly greater amount of heat and possibly residual heat when cooking is completed, especially when using charcoal. Thus, the grills may need to be placed in a safe spot spaced away from the vehicle and areas of high activity, but further from the convenience of the vehicle dining and storage facilities. Further, prior barbeque grill use has often required the use of a second fuel supply, additional propane gas containers or bags of charcoal, for example.
It has been suggested to offset some of the disadvantages of purely interior cooking facilities in recreational vehicles by making the stoves portable and adaptable for use inside or outside of the vehicle. Such indoor/outdoor stoves typically include a lightweight mounting frame, formed from plastic material, for example, that attaches either to an interior shelf or support recess, or to a bracket on an exterior wall of the vehicle. During exterior use, the stove is adjacent and cantilevered from that exterior wall, and a fuel supply line is attachable to the stove to connect it to the same fuel supply as used when the stove is on the interior of the vehicle. Such stoves in exterior use have the advantages of freeing up interior space, keeping the cooking heat and odors outside of the vehicle, and minimizing fuel supply sources while maintaining a convenient proximity to the vehicle dining and storage areas.
Unfortunately, such stoves have not been able to provide the high temperatures and flavor enhancing capabilities of barbeque grills without at least including cumbersome, expensive and/or bulky modifications, shielding and accessory devices. Without such shielding, for example, the adjacent exterior wall of the vehicle can be damaged by the barbeque-like heat generated in normal grilling. Similarly, if an accessory cover, for example, were to be placed over the stove to simulate to heat retaining covers on barbeque grills, the cover would become significantly heated during use. If the cover is hinged to the stove to open away from users in order to safely support it in the manner of barbeque covers, the opened cover could be directly in contact or near contact with the vehicle exterior wall. The heat of the cover thus could cause substantial damage to that wall even after the stove has been turned off. If the cover is not connected to the stove, then another heat resistant support must be provide for it when removed from the stove. Likewise, the plastic mounting frame of many such prior stoves would itself not withstand the high temperatures of barbeque-like cooking. Creation of a more heat durable frame would entail greater expense, bulk and/or weight. In addition, since barbeque-like grilling often produces greater mess deposited onto the cooking equipment, such stoves would have to be designed to permit greater ease of cleaning and durability of components regularly in contact with users during cleaning. Finally, if such stoves are xe2x80x9cbulked-upxe2x80x9d to permit use as a grill, supplemental ground-engaging supports may be needed to ensure a stable cooking platform, and such supports could present a hazard to movement by persons and/or pets in the vicinity.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide improved cooking facilities for use with recreational vehicles. Other objects include the use of a portable barbeque cooking device which is:
a. inexpensive, lightweight and reliable over repeated use,
b. removably attachable to the exterior of a vehicle and provides a stable cooking platform adjacent thereto without significant risk of damage to the vehicle,
c. compact and easily installed and removed from the vehicle,
d. easily cleaned and serviced, and
e. able to utilize mounting component commonality with standard indoor/outdoor recreational vehicle stoves.
These and other objects of the present invention are attained by the provision of a barbeque grill arrangement having a grill unit removably mounted on a rack which attaches to an exterior vehicle wall to form a stable grill support solely by the vehicle connection. At least part of that connection can utilize a standard indoor/outdoor stove support bracket. The rack maintains all elements of the grill at least predetermined distance from the vehicle wall, sufficient to avoid heat-induced damage to the wall. The grill is connectable to the same fuel supply as is used by an interior stove. Grill heat is vented away from the vehicle. A cover stop is mounted within the cover hinge.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become readily apparent from the following drawings and detailed description of preferred embodiments.